As technology advances, devices can communicate at increasingly higher data rates. For example, many network devices (such as switches and routers) are currently being deployed with line cards having interfaces configured for operation at data rates of 10 Gbps, e.g., 10 Gbps Ethernet. Many offices, campuses and other enterprises have installed optical fiber for high-speed communication between networked devices.
Accordingly, optical uplinks (also referred to herein as adapters, optical interfaces or the like) must be provided for 10 Gbps Ethernet interfaces and optical fibers. However, adapters configured for 10 Gbps data rates are very expensive at present.
Existing infrastructure has relatively more multi-mode fiber (“MMF”) than single-mode fiber (“SMF”). This disparity reflects a difference in price: MMF is less expensive than SMF. Connecting high data rate devices with MMF presents challenges, because of the relatively higher rates at which high frequencies are attenuated as compared with SMF.
It would be desirable to implement methods and devices that overcome at least some of the aforementioned shortcomings of the prior art.